April 12 – If the basis for international success is in the number of young players coaches can pick from their domestic leagues then England, who currently have the youngest national ‘A’ team in Europe, need to be worried about what happens next. France on the other hand has a very bright future.
Research from the CIES Football Observatory examines data on Under 23 players active in the five major European leagues eligible for England, Spain, Germany, France and Italy who are more experienced than current full internationals of these nations at the same age.
The players are given what the CIES defines as ‘experience capital’ – calculated by attributing “different values to matches according to an exclusive classification method that takes into account the performance of national association representatives in European club competitions, the division of the employer club in the domestic league and results achieved.”
The data highlights the number of U23 players available for national team selection that have a higher experience capital than similarly aged players already in the national team. For England there are only five players – indicating that Roy Hodgson has used up pretty much the full extent of his youth resources.
In contrast France has a further 30 available players, Spain has 22, Italy has 18 and Germany has 17. Clearly the English cup is almost empty.
CIES data lists the players. England’s five include Norwich’s Nathan Redmond and Southampton’s James Ward Prowse. Among the other notable players CIES lists are Saúl Ñíguez (Atlético Madrid), Johannes Geis (Schalke 04), Samuel Umititi (Olympique Lyonnais) and Stefano Sturaro (Juventus).
To see the lists go to http://www.football-observatory.com/IMG/sites/b5wp/2015/145/en/ For more information on CIES Football Observatory analysis of young players and talent identification in Europe’s Big 5 leagues go to http://www.football-observatory.com/IMG/sites/mr/mr14/en/
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